Keep on thinking….

Interesting

I’ve been training at my MMA gym for about 5 months now. If truth be told, at the beginning of December, I was looking to throw it off as I just couldn’t get my head around the grappling aspect of the game. Unlike my coach, I struggle immensely with personal drive and determination.

I’m going to start with my coach. He is one of the most genuinely nice people I have ever had the pleasure to have met. Many times in life, you meet someone and say: “What a nice guy” but they’re just a regular person who isn’t horrid. Then you meet someone who goes the extra mile, who genuinely cares about people and isn’t out for number 1. This is my coach. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him be negative about anything, even after one of our fighters was cheated out of victory in his first fight and the rules changed on the day of the event. Every time I speak to him or read his Facebook, I hear/see nothing but positive vibes oozing from him. Not to mention determined. He’s done things this year most people talk about but never bother. Setting up seminars with internationally renowned fighter and without the backing of big named gyms/promotions to swing the deal.

So my point of this blog is not to say what an amazing guy he is. The point of this blog is to try and take from him that determination. I’m probably the opposite from him. The most committed thing I’ve done is get married and have a baby. Every day, I get into work thinking “I’ve got this to do/that to do and I will do it by the end of the day”…… Then I sit there and write a blog. At the end of the week, when my boss is screaming at me for late submission of accounts or something else, I get upset and wonder why!!

My problem is I have:

A short attention span

No self drive

Number 1 is difficult to deal with, or at least I think it is WITHOUT number 2. I deal with number 2, that will smash number 1 out of the park. But how do you go about motivating yourself? How can you change your perspective to gain a drive in your life? The perfect example is this: I sign up for a gym, do the induction, go a few times but never really break a sweat. Then I leave it and watch the money drain from my bank every month. However, I go to rugby or mma training, I bust a gut with someone yelling at me and I get so much more from it. Is it boredom? Could be partially it. Is it laziness in that I need someone to stand over me while I do things?

Not sure either way, but I have to change it soon. I’ve so many options available to me to make a better life but without this drive, I’ll let everyone single one of them slip me by. Guess I should stop blogging and get on with my mountain of work now

Of course, I found this funny for the same reason I’m sure all of you are now laughing away. Since then, I’ve found a few more videos online staring this guy:

And then an interview (of sorts from a bedroom) with the main man himself made by his buddy:

Up until this point, I thought this was still really funny. True, the guy does seem a little slow and at some point you have to wonder is it really fair to be laughing at him rather than with him, but I was happy enough wetting myself laughing at the enthusiasm he throws into his singing and the fact he really doesn’t care what people think. That was until I saw this vid:

Now I appreciate that some people do not want to hear a guy singing his little heart out on the bus first thing in the morning, especially if he can’t hold a note. But there is no need to throw things at him and be generally horrid. We live in the 21st century where we’re supposed to be accepting, kind, understanding people who look on ourselves and our community with this attributes. I can’t see that from this video. I have to be honest that I stopped watching about 1.17 as I suddenly felt so sorry for the guy and ashamed at myself for laughing at his videos. Does laughing at the videos make me just as bad as the clowns who were throwing things at him?

I’m sure we’ve all been in this sort of situation. A misfortunate person, such as Carmine, does something that we find funny. This may be singing or falling over or dancing or anything but we laugh. At the time, I’m sure 95% of don’t think anything malicious about it. It’s simply another human being doing something funny. But does that make it right? How does that person feel? Are they trying to make us laugh or just doing something they like to do and would feel upset at being laughed at?

I don’t know if I’m being too touchy, but I hate to think of someone being bullied, let alone being bullied on the scale of having a video of them posted on YouTube for millions to see and laugh at.

Then again, am I making things worse by posting the vids in this blog? Damn, having a conscience is tough!!!

Unfortunately, most of the acts I consider to be “the greatest ever” are either dead, part dead (in relation to bands) or split up. And as I’ve only seen a handful of concerts, the chances are I will NEVER get to see my top 5 acts live. To this end, I’m using the 21st Century to share them with you. So here are my top 10 acts who I’d love to have seen in their prime. Some may still be performing, but ageing acts can never quite match the heady heights of their prime. I’m sure people will disagree, so why not comment and give us your top 5 or 10:

No. 10 – Buddy Holly – I was brought up on music from this era. My mum loves the old rock and roll era music and thankfully, she has passed this down to me. Here is a man who was taken from us too early. The impact he had on the music world in such a short time is phenomenal. Just imagine what could have been accomplished if he had lived on?

No. 9 – Madonna – I’m not a big fan of her new stuff. Just not my cup of tea. But her 80’s music, the Immaculate Collection album…….. WOW! It just collated all her greatest tunes.

No. 8 – Bob Marley – I have to be in the mood for Bob, but when I am, god I love him!! I imagine his concerts not to be a standing, dancing affair, but everyone sat in a big field, chilling out and smoking things they really shouldn’t!

No. 7 – The Rolling Stones – I’ve only recently discovered the Stones. I’ve known the most infamous songs for ages, same as pretty much everyone does and can sing a long to a few without even realising who they are. It also helps that the come from the same town as I do (Dartford, Kent)! Don’t know a great deal about them to quote, but I do know I’d have loved to have seen them back in the day.

No. 6 – Tina Turner – Come on!! You got to love her!! What a voice, she loves to shake it and her songs are so infectious!!! I can honestly say I think Simply The Best was the first proper song I can remember.

No. 5 – Elvis Presley – Maybe a surprise he isn’t higher, but I think live, there are better. Still the King and love pretty much all of his songs

No. 4 – Elton John – Yes, Sir Elton is here! Not for his awful Diana tribute song, but for his energetic songs and amazing voice! His songs know how to drag your emotions to whatever destination he wants, be it party anthems, melodic songs, romance…….

No. 3 – Meat Loaf – I don’t think this particular choice will get a lot of love, but I’m a big Meat fan. The power in his voice combined with the songs of Jim Steinman make for an amazing partnership

No. 2 – The Beatles – Of Course the Fab Four would be here!! What list of greatest musicians WOULDN’T have them in the top 5?! I don’t think I need to put anymore really….. Run VT

And the top prize goes to………..

No. 1 – Queen– Where do I start? The music? The lyrics? The power? I love Queen and I think the music they made is pure genius. I cannot think of a bad song they made and without doubt at least 2 or 3 of their songs would be in my top 10 all time fav songs. But the reason they are number 1 in this list if simple….. Freddie Mercury. If you haven’t seen videos of Queen live, you’re missing out. The man was a true performer and captivated everyone and everything when he performed. He didn’t just sing and walk about the stage, he performed! The Live Aid concert was a huge success, but without doubt the Highlight of it was Queens performance. Enjoy.

I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but Google has released its answer to Facebook………. Google+! It’s a breath of fresh air and I love it!!

Basically, it seems to be a bit of a cross between Facebook and Twitter, with all of their strengths and none of their weaknesses. Needless to say, I’m loving it.

Instead of having just a list of friends who see everything you post, G+ has something called circles (this is my fav part). In this, you split your friends/relatives/contacts into different circles, then when you post something, you can choose who see’s it (I don’t want my mum seeing pics of me on the lash but my friends would, nor do my rugby chums want to see lots of pictures of my little girl but my family do). Also, you can split out your stream so instead of getting loads of Farmville rubbish all the time, you can select specific circles that will show up. It’s GENIUS!!!

The only issue at the moment is it’s not open to the public yet. Still in test mode and to gain access, you need to be invited. And all you lucky readers can get involved!! I have invites galore, so if you’d care to join up and see what’s got me excited, here’s the link: Google+ Invite There are only 150 invites per person, so be quick.

As it’s still in test mode, I’ll report back with any updates and stuff I find……..

I hate to bang on about the same thing, but I saw this video and just HAD to share it. Not only is it an amazing feat in itself, but the images around 1.30 are breathtaking. I sooo want to see this now.

Perhaps because he could no longer fly on the Concorde, Air France passenger Nate Bolt decided to simulate what it would be like to fly from San Francisco to Paris—in just two minutes.

In reality, the flight lasted about 11 hours, taking off from California at 3:35 p.m. local time, crossing over Greenland at night, and landing in France at 11:10 a.m. local time.

But instead of packing books and B-movies, Bolt came prepared with a unique form of onboard entertainment: time-lapse photography equipment.

With a whole row to himself, Bolt had lots of room to set up a digital SLR camera, a tripod, and a time-lapse controller, arranged to take pictures out the plane window every 2 to 30 seconds, depending on exposure time. That’s about a picture every two miles, Bolt calculates.

In total he racked up 2,459 still frames that, when strung together, result in a two-minute movie of the world going by.

This is pretty cool in and of itself. But in the dark of night Bolt got an even cooler surprise: a vivid green aurora borealis.

The photographer said couldn’t see the northern lights with his naked eyes, according to The Christian Science Monitor. But when he previewed the long-exposure shots on his camera, the auroras leapt from the LCD screen.

With some viewers wondering how Bolt saw northern lights from a south-facing window, he replied in his YouTube comments:

“Basically, SF to Paris takes you over Greenland and the Arctic Circle, because that’s the straightest route (crazy, I know), so from that location and flying altitude, you can see northern lights from both sides of the plane.”

After the terrible performance of last years world cup, Wayne Rooney seems to be finding his form again (regardless of his foul mouth and awful attitude in general). This can only be good for English football and football in general.

But have you ever wondered of the price of insuring a footballer of this calibre? I don’t know about you, but it’s kept me awake at night……. (er….) So our friends over at confused.com have done the calculation for us. Enjoy:

I am a HUGE Top Gear fan. I think the programme is hosted by witty, entertaining people and that have the right mix of enthusiasm for what they do, love of what they talk about and entertainment value for the masses.

True, the show has deviated somewhat from its initial birth of a “motoring show” to a more “entertainment show involving fast cars”. Which is just fine for me. If I want motoring for the car enthusiast, I’ll switch over to Fifth Gear. I want to see a Ferrari race against a plane from the south of France to London. I want to see caravans get blown up. I want to see epic journey’s across the north pole in a sup’d-up-pick-up truck while they flaunt the fact there are no drink-drive laws there to stop them partaking in a G&T while crashing through an iceberg.

One of the things I truly love about this show though, is the tongue in cheek approach they have to many things. Take for example, the episode featuring the reliant robin. Genius. Poked fun at it, at the drivers and the image of the vehicle, without being overly insulting to something that, thanks to Del Boy, is a national icon.

So when electric sports car company Tesla gave their new baby to the Top Gear boys to review, I honestly thought them to be a tad fool hardy. This show is world-renowned. It is run, produced and hosted by petrol heads. They are going to start off being slightly against an electrical car in any case. Couple that with their general approach to reviewing things (eg. Reliant Robin), I thought Tesla might have expected a few little digs. And to be honest, they got it! The show was broadcast back in December 2008, so why they have left it sooooo long to object is beyond me (publicity I’m guessing).

But things seem to be hotting up now. Generally, the BBC don’t tend to make a big song and dance about legal action. Lets look at the Mexico incident a few months back, where the Top Gear presents (pattern emerging here?) insulted a Mexican car and therefore the Mexican people. The ambassador for Mexico kicked off, but the Beeb coolly dealt with it. This case, however, Tesla seem determined to keep in the public eye (again, publicity purposes?). I found this response from the Executive Producer of Top Gear, Mr. Andy Willman.

So it seems Aunty is showing a little fighting spirit. I think they should win. Tesla will get the publicity for its Scalextric car and we can all go on with our viewing pleasure of one of the greatest shows: Top Gear.